In Middlesex, the Stephanides’ story begins during the invasion of the Mount Olympus in Asia Minor by Turkey. Calliope’s grandparents, Desdemona and Lefty, escape to America - Detroit, Michigan, specifically. Just before departure, Desdemona and Lefty acknowledge that their shared feelings go beyond that of sibling love. As their parents are dead and no one on the boat knows that they are related, the brother and sister pretend to be new acquaintances, court, and wed before hitting the shores of New York. Later on, first cousins Milton (Desdemona and Lefty’s son) and Tessie (daughter of cousin Sourmelina) marry and have Calliope who is a hermaphrodite.

Calliope’s secret continues to be just that until an examination after an accident reveals the truth. It is at this crossroads that Calliope recognizes that she is really a man - Cal. It would be easy to get caught up in the hermaphroditic nature of the tale or the intricacies of the intermarrying process that causes Calliope’s genetic makeup. It is Cal’s hermaphroditism that drives the story, but just as poignant are the experiences of the entire Stephanides family and their friends as they change drastically against the backdrop of an altering world.

Just as Detroit becomes the glorious “Motor City” and then trembles under the horrible race riots of 1967 and other events, so too does the Stephanides family grow into its own greatness and nearly crack under the weight of its secrets. As Cal tells his parents and grandparents’ tales, he also shares his trials in finding his own identity as a teen boy instead of a girl and then trying to build relationships with women in his adult life.